11/1/07 - 8th Ward candidates concerned about taxes

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The candidates for the 8th Ward Common Council seat each said the city’s tax rate is the issue they have heard about the most as they campaigned.

Both Republican incumbent Tom Michales and Democratic challenger Shawn Smith believe at least some level of consolidation — probably between the city and the town of Cortlandville — would alleviate some of the tax burden on city residents by helping to maintain existing levels of services, and that improved communication between the city and the county would allow the city to control the amount of property that is being taken off the tax rolls.

Smith said she is also in favor of trying to obtain payments from the county, hospital and SUNY Cortland to offset the cost of services to the tax-exempt entities.

Michales pointed out that the hospital and college are exempt, by law, from having to make any kinds of payments to a municipality for services.

Michales is running for his third two-year term on the council. He is a project safety engineer at ITS Testing Lab in Cortlandville.

Smith is a prevention education coordinator at the YWCA’s Aid to Victims of Violence office, and is pursuing a master’s degree in public administration through SUNY Binghamton.

Smith has been involved in recent Housing Confab meetings in the city, working on the project as part of her graduate program.

Smith said she would like to encourage homeownership by setting up programs to encourage employers in the city to assist new employees in buying a home, whether through down payment or closing cost assistance.

Also, she would like to see more grant programs to help moderate-income individuals to buy and maintain a home — many of the existing programs are targeted only at lower-income families, Smith said.

Both she and Michales support encouraging long-term loans to potential homebuyers, in the hopes that homeownership would increase.

In the end, though, Smith thinks only consolidation would give the city the resources to combat its growing financial problems.

Michales said that the city and Cortlandville are already working together on several fronts, including sharing equipment between the city Department of Public Works and the town Highway Department.

He worries that there would be opposition in Cortlandville to consolidation, especially considering the disparity in tax rates: about $4 for every $1,000-worth of assessed value in the town, compared to nearly $18 per every $1,000 in the city.

Michales predicted that only increased sales tax revenue in some kind of expanded municipality, offsetting property taxes, would be the way to convince Cortlandville to combine with the city.
In the meantime, he said he supports creating a fire district that would combine the fire departments.